Ulcers / Food

CHRIS DREW (JRQL61A at prodigy.com)
Wed, 14 Aug 1996 19:07:35, -0500

Rod Pick wrote>On the other point, the words "good food"
have been used. This has
always interested me and has been the cause of many problems
to
hobbyists in interpretation and understanding. We are
bombarded with
things like protein, fat, ash, live, frozen, flake, pellet
and so on??
Would anyone like to indicate what they claim is "good
food" and what ...<
Sorry for being so vague Rod. You've caught me out!:-)
IMHO good food is that which is comprised of mostly things
that fish would naturally consume. While some of the
products may be alien to some fishes I'd say on just a hunch
(I have to cover my butt because all the scientists are
lurking-ready to pounce;-) ), that these kinds of foods are
better than foods not usually consumed by fish eg.beefheart.
For my own fish I use the following foods ( Itry to provide
variety in content as well as texture):
Sera brand or Aquarian brand basic flakes
Freeze dried Plankton
frozen bloodworms; Spirulina based flake and for breeders

and finicky eaters I try to provide mosquito larvae courtesy
of my rain barrels. I also provide live baby brine and
vinegar eels for fry and smaller fishes like I.Werneri,and
for really small fry I culture green water and rotifers. For
the most part I think my fishes diet is balanced and varied
but I'm always looking for new things for them to enjoy.
Often I will try one of the marine frozen food combos.Some
of my larger fish seem to quite like pulverized Sea Urchin.
In your note you also mentioned that you sometimes get

ulcers when you move your fish. You noted a temp range of
80-82F. I usually keep my fish down around the 75F mark.
While stress( including the high temp),is the more likely
culprit for the ulcer outbreak, Irecently wrote an article
for the RSG which compared one species being kept by two
different people . IN my fishroom I keep Harvey's creek
Signifer at 72-74F. They've lived for over three years and
counting. In another guy's fishroom the same species is kept
at 80+F and his fish barely live for one year. Just an
OBSERVATION but temp could greatly affect longevity and to
me that would reflect a low stress environment.
Just Curious what's the record for Rainbow lifespan?
I have a male Bose. and a male Lacustrtis both of which are
over 8 years old.
Chris Drew